SCIENCE EDUCATORS RESPOND TO LEGISLATIVE CHALLENGES TO TEACHING EVOLUTION

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - As states constantly face legislative challenges to the teaching of evolution in public classrooms, a University of Arkansas professor and his colleague offer their experiences and insights into two states where such political action recently failed. The two hope that science educators will build on these experiences to defend the teaching of evolution in other states.

Michael Wavering, associate professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Arkansas, and Don Duggan-Haas, assistant professor of science education at Colgate University, reported their findings in the most recent issue of Reports of the National Center for Science Education.

In 2001, Arkansas, Michigan, Louisiana and Pennsylvania lawmakers introduced legislation that might have restricted the teaching of evolution or mandated the teaching of non-scientific explanations for the origin of the species and the universe. The two researchers focus on the bills in Arkansas and Michigan, which were stalled in part by the activity of concerned science educators in those states.

In both states, opponents to the bills worked with legislators, state education officials and the media to keep the lines of communication open and to defend science education. Wavering wrote an editorial that appeared in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette called "It’s just a theory," while Duggan-Haas answered questions on talk radio. Both communicated with state legislators and education officials, attempting to elucidate and clarify the issues involved in teaching evolution in public schools.

The bills in both states demonstrate a lack of knowledge about the process of science, the role of theory in science and the relationship between religious belief and scientific knowledge.

"The fact that such legislation is even written is a clear signal that science education has not been as effective as it should be. It is also a clarion call for public education on these issues," the authors wrote.

Wavering and Duggan-Haas hope that by providing a history of successful defense against such legislation, they can help educators in other states defeat future legislative attempts to either strike evolution from the curricula or equate religious content with scientific theory.

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